Tuesday, August 8, 2017

To mark the 90th birthday of the People’s Liberation Army on Aug. 1, China’s President Xi Jinping went to the Inner Mongolian steppe to the location where Genghis Khan commenced his conquest of Eurasia. There, at Zhurihe, he was welcomed by an spectacular show of China’s martial might: a parade of Chinese troops, tanks, helicopters, aircraft and missiles. But the main course was a massive war game displaying the state of China‘s preparation to “fight and win” future military clashes.

For what war is the PLA planning?

Recent events should make the answer abundantly obvious. In July, North Korea carried out two ICBM tests that put the American heartland within reach of its nuclear weapons. In reaction, the U.S. flew two B-1 bombers over the Korean peninsula to send the message, in the words of Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, that the U.S. is “ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.”

President Trump has aimed his ire at China, tweeting after the North Korean missile test: “I am very disappointed in China … they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue.”